“You should’ve thought about that before you made your deal with the Devil,” said Ronnie.

“I was young and naïve and greedy. I’ve regretted it ever since. I dedicated my life to making the people of this town as happy as I could. I’ve done good things.”

“And along the way you’ve been responsible for two hundred kids being killed.”

Ronnie’s phone rang.

“I’m sorry,” Jesper sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

“Shush,” Ronnie said, putting the phone on speaker. “Warrick. What’s the situation? How’s the barrier?”

“The eagle has landed,” Warrick said on the other end. “Repeat, the eagle has landed.”

Linda frowned. “Has the barrier dropped or not?”

“What’d I just say?” Warrick answered. “‘The eagle has landed’ is code for ‘the barrier has dropped’. I’m watching the Hounds roll in right now. That’s the good news. Even better news is that they’re not headed this way, so it looks like Milo was right about their radar being screwed up in here. Three of them are going straight into town. The other two are splitting up.”

Ronnie nodded. “Good job, Warrick.”

“I can see a lot of people standing in little groups, looking pretty excited. Won’t be long now before they’re running around killing each other like the murderous psycho demons they’re dying to be. Don’t tell Amber or Milo I said that.”

“You’re on speaker,” said Ronnie.

There was a hesitation. “Did they hear?”

“They’re standing right beside me.”

“Dude …”

“Sorry.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know you were going to say that.”

“Do they look mad?”

“They look fine.”

“They don’t look like they’re going to kill me?”

“No, they really don’t. Not at all.”

“Okay, good,” said Warrick. “I won’t mention it when I see them. If I mention it, I’ll only draw attention to it, and then it’ll be this whole big deal and they’ll feel embarrassed and I’ll feel embarrassed and it’ll turn into this huge awkward thing where no one will know what to say and we’ll all be super-nice and super-polite to each other and … Am I still on speaker?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, come on! Dude! A little warning, you know?”

“Get back here, Warrick, before you’re seen. And before you say anything else stupid.”

“Yeah,” Warrick said, and sighed. “I’m really sorry, Amber and Milo. I didn’t mean anything bad. Please don’t hate me.”

“We don’t hate you,” said Amber.

“When I said psycho demons, I didn’t mean you. You’re nice demons.”

“We know. It’s fine.”